Even a great dad cannot meet the deepest needs.

My Dad was an amazing encourager. Amazing communicator. He inspired many, many people. But I think there was somewhat of a hole in my heart that I wanted more intimacy with my Dad. But he didn’t have that transparent peace and kind of that intimate relationship with God. That freedom that you can confess your weaknesses and your faults. My Dad wasn’t really comfortable with that. He was when he passed away. Which was a great, great completion of his life story, but cancer and some other challenging things were part of what it took to bring him to that place of just simply “Hey, Jesus you love me and I love you, and I can be real. And I can be forgiven. And I can talk about tough things.” I guess it’s a good thing that my insecurity not getting everything met by my really good but imperfect Dad sent me to my perfect Heavenly Father to get an amazing amount of love. And the security that I didn’t have from performing or not performing. I just want to say something to guys. There’s some sort of hole in your heart that you're still trying to get filled. You wish your Dad had said some wonderful things. You wish he’d hugged you. Maybe you wish he’d kissed you. Maybe you wish he’d said; “man you’ve got what it takes. I’m proud of you son. You’re a good man.” Even with a good father on earth, some of that’s missing in all of us. And you’ve got that Dad. He’s a perfect Heavenly Father. His love for you is absolutely complete. And if you can tap into what Jesus Christ did for you and realize you don’t have to do anything to earn that love. And you can be transparent and admit any of the nasty, yucky sinful junk in your life that is simply a lie that Satan got you off track. And if you share it honestly, get it out on the table. It’s forgiven. Then God says; “I believe in you. You’re a valiant warrior. You have what it takes. I love you. I’m proud of you.” Well, that makes your heart strong. Once your heart is strong, you can be gentle with your hands. We need more men that are gentle with their girlfriend, gentle with their wife and who don’t take sex from someone that doesn’t belong to them. It only happens when you come into a married commitment. And now the whole piece comes together. But we need to have our hearts healed by running back to the Father. So, guys, I want to encourage you to give your life to Jesus Christ and accept the love of your perfect Heavenly Father. Forgive your earthly Dad for whatever you didn’t get from him and for whatever damage he did to you. You be the first to forgive him. That’s what a man does. Christ forgave us. We can forgive everyone else. We can also be the very first to apologize to our wife. To our girlfriend. To or kids. Maybe to our Dad or others. Because Jesus Christ gave us the power to initiate apology and to accept forgiveness.